Those Nights
by Silver-Eyed-Rukia
Summary: SPOILERT ALERT. Do not read if you have not played Ep. 4! Chloe has a nightmare about Rachel's death and the only one who can calm her fears is a certain nerdy photographer. Pricefield and a dash of Amberprice.


**Those Nights  
**

by

 _Silver-Eyed Rukia_

 **Rated:** T

 **Pairing:** Max x Chloe (Pricefield)

 **Summary:** Chloe has a nightmare about Rachel's death and the only one who can calm her fears is a certain nerdy photographer.

 **Note:** Please ignore any mistakes. Or point them out and correct me, whatever you prefer.

* * *

 **Spoiler Alert for Ep. 4**

 **Do not read if you haven't played Ep. 4**

* * *

The bright light of the afternoon sun reflected off the surfaces of the various trashed cars, washing machines and whatever junk was resting in the metallic graveyard, basking it in an orange glow and an odd feeling of comfort. A thin line of smoke wafted through the air that originated from the mouth of one of the two girls lying on the hood of a dead car.

"Want a drag?", the blue-haired teen asked, waving the joint around comically only to have it snatched out of her hands mere moments later by a laughing Rachel Amber.

"You don't even have to ask, asshat", the brunette smirked and inhaled the intoxicating fume moments later. Her in hotpants clad legs were crossed for comfort and her tank top did nothing to hide the beauty she possessed. Her long, chestnut coloured hair cascaded down her back, seemingly glowing as the light of the sun fell on it. Chloe swallowed and just silently admired the being of perfection that lay next to her that was all but oblivious to the thoughts that were currently running amok inside the punk's head.

"Say, Chloe…"

The voice snapped her out of her dazed musings and the punker mentally smacked herself for spacing out like that. "Hm?"

A short pause filled the space between them before the brunette continued speaking, watching the clouds float about freely.

"When will we get out of this junkyard?"

"We got here like twenty minutes ago and you already wanna bail? Damn Rache, you're more easily bored than I am."

"Not like this, Captain Obvious. I meant Arcadia. I want to get out of this dive, I want to see the world. I want to finally live and not just exist…", she trailed off, flicking away the bud of the now finished joint into a nearby can. "I want to _be_ someone."

A surprised yelp escaped her painted lips as Chloe flipped herself on top of the girl, pinning her arms down with her own before kissing her deeply, only parting when the need for oxygen became more important than the need for the woman beneath her.

"You already are someone Rachel, to me. You're my light."

The affection in Chloe's voice brought a faint blush onto the brunette's cheeks and she looked into those lively azure orbs with the ghost of a smile adorning her features.

"When did you turn all mushy, Price? You're becoming such a sissy lately."

"Am not, asswipe!"

The loud honk of a passing by train caught the punk's attention and she raised her head, squinting her eyes shut at the bright light entering her vision. Her gaze returned downcast and she opened her eyes, expecting to see a still smiling Rachel only to find…nothing.

"Rache?"

Confused Chloe jumped off the hood, mind barely acknowledging the fact that it was suddenly way too dark for it being afternoon. She spotted her truck some feet away and peeked inside, followed by a trip to their hideout, but Rachel was nowhere to be found. A sudden feeling of dread washed over her and settled in her stomach, a wave of nausea hitting her like a well-aimed punch to her midsection. Hesitantly she turned around, exiting the hideout and walking into the direction of the derelict bus. Her mind was screaming at her to stop and turn around, to look elsewhere for the girl she loved but her legs carried her to that specific spot without her brain's consent. It was getting progressively darker and harder to see without a source of light so the blue-haired punk pulled out her phone and aimed it at the ground ahead.

The grass had been ripped out and carelessly cast aside, forming a hole big enough to fit a deer through it. Or something about the size of the human…

Chloe continued taking hesitant steps towards the hole, the sickening feeling only increasing as she came to a halt and peeked at whatever was lying in the ground. Or whoever.

"Oh no. No no no no no."

The sweet smell of decay infiltrated her nose as she fell to her knees, vision blurring from the tears that sprung to her eyes as she reached out for the face she remembered but barely recognized. A face that used to be so full of life and that was now contorted into a terrified grimace, decaying skin starting to peel off her face. Her hand touched the shredded skin and Chloe yelled in surprise as a bony hand grabbed her wrist and the empty sockets of Rachel's eyes stared into her very soul, consuming her as the corpse started pulling her into the hole.

"You killed me, Chloe!"

Chloe gasped for air as she sat up in her bed, sweating and shaking in fear as the fragments of the nightmare started settling in. She could still feel a faint pressure on her wrist, still had that disgusting smell of death in her nose and she suddenly bolted through her room, nearly falling over all the shit scattered on the floor as she got sick, gagging and coughing as the dinner her best friend had paid for left her body and flushed down the toilet.

Slow, shaky breaths turned into quiet sobs as Chloe hugged herself, rocking back and forth on the cold, tiled floor as the death of Rachel Amber registered in her mind with a finality that hadn't quite settled in. Until now.

' _She's dead. And nothing will ever bring her back._ '

* * *

A soft tickle against her cheek and the faint buzzing noise of her phone tore Max out of her less than restful sleep at the desk. She raised her head to look for her phone, tossing the various scattered papers off the table in the motion. She grumbled quietly when she accidentally knocked her half-empty glass of water over, spilling the contents onto the floor. The need to rewind and move the glass out of the way arose but she quickly cast it aside as unnecessary. ' _It's just spilled water, Max. Nothing to risk a river of blood out of your nose for._ '

She winced and squinted her eyes at the display when she finally found her phone. ' _Chloe?_ '

"Hey Chloe, what's up", the brunette mumbled, rubbing her eyes with her free hand. "It's 3AM."

"Thank god Max, you're real."

Blue eyes narrowed in confusion at the statement. "Yeah, very real and very tired. Come on Chloe, if this is you calling me to tell me about another great idea how to use my powers, then-"

"Can I come over?"

Max's mouth snapped shut at the interruption and she nodded before realizing that Chloe couldn't see her. ' _Smooth move, Max. Damn I am not awake enough for this._ '

"Sure, just…let me know when you're there so I can open the window. I'll get the rope ready."

The connection died as her friend ended the call and Max continued sitting at the desk for a moment, thinking. Chloe had sounded so…terrified. Like when she was begging Max to help her get off the train tracks, shortly before she- ' _Don't think about it. Just don't._ '

She sighed and rose from her seat, flicking on the lights covering her "memorial wall" before she rummaged through her closet to find the makeshift rope she had made out of bedsheets . This wasn't the first time the punker had entered her room after curfew and it certainly wasn't going to be the last time, she was sure of that.

Five, ten, fifteen minutes went by before the photographer received another text that, yet again, woke her from her slumber. Groggily she stumbled over to the window, pushing it open and wrapping the rope around her bed to ensure a safe climb for her best friend. It took only another two or three minutes before the familiar shock of blue hair more or less gracefully tumbled into the room, painted fingers coming up to rub the spot on her head she had just hit against the window frame.

"Jeez, I did this more times than I can count."

"Careful, you don't want to kill the remaining two brain cells you have left." The sarcastic remark fell on deaf ears as the punker only wrapped her arms around the tinier frame of her friend and held her close, the smell of weed and cigarettes clinging to Chloe's clothes like a persistent stalker.

"Fuck me sideways I am so glad to see your nerdy-ass face and hear your sarcastic voice Mad Max", the bluenette mumbled against the top of Max's head. Said woman returned the hug less fiercely before guiding them both towards the bed.

"Gee thank you. Must have missed me real bad to slap that insult in my face the moment you see me", Max said and rolled her eyes in fake annoyance, smiling as she watched Chloe take off her jacket and boots, only pausing while unbuttoning her jeans to shoot a glare at her hipster friend.

"You know that the more I insult you, the more I actually tell you how much I love you, yeah?"

"You must really adore your stepdad then."

The clothes were carelessly cast into a corner as Chloe made a face at the mention of her supposed father. "Ew, no. Gross. That only applies to you, Maxter. Now come on, I am freezing my imaginary balls off here, get your bony white ass into bed."

A few moments passed before the pair laid in bed, light extinguished and air filled with heavy, uncomfortable silence as neither of them quite knew what to tell the other as to what exactly they were doing right now. Max had noticed the unsteady voice of her best friend when she had called, knew immediately that she had been crying but she didn't want to push the issue. Chloe rarely ever cried, and whatever had caused her such distress was a delicate subject. One the photographer wasn't sure she wanted to address just yet. Or could.

"I need to stop sleeping at my desk. I think I have a kink in my neck and it's actually kinda painful", Max started, trying to break the silence with a decently neutral topic. She received a hum of acknowledgment, followed by the feeling of something soft against her back and something warm on her neck. Before she realized she felt Chloe gently rubbing her fingers against Max's neck, massaging the from stress hardened muscles. She felt a blush rise to her cheeks but she didn't move, enjoying the rare moment of affection from her blue-haired sidekick.

"At least you slept. I barely got two hours before I woke up again."

"Something kept you up?"

The fingers on her neck paused for a moment before they resumed their movements with a little more intensity.

"Nightmares, actually. You know, the shitty kind that's really fucking realistic and scary and when you wake up all you wanna do is pinch yourself to check if you actually woke up." A quiet sigh brushed against the brunette's neck, sending a shiver down her spine. "You cold Max? Could have said something. Here, lemme warm you up."

If she had never been truly aware of the fact that Chloe was indeed very much a woman before, she was now as she felt the blunette's chest press into her back and her stomach brush against her behind, sending pleasant warmth through her body. And even though she wasn't actually feeling cold she enjoyed the feeling of being so close to her...friend? ' _You said you love her. You called her girlfriend before. For hipster's sake, you kissed the woman. How can she be just a friend?_ '

"Max?"

"Huh?"

"Oh wow, thanks for listening. I was talking about my nightmare and you just zone out. Or wait...I didn't say something totally stupid and you had to rewind to spare me the embarrassment, right? Shit I'm confused."

"No! Chloe, for crying out loud, I am not using my powers on a whim", she hissed, trying to keep her volume down as to not wake the entire dorm and make them aware of the punker's presence. She turned around in the embrace, looking at where she assumed Chloe's eyes were, and continued in a softer tone. "I'm sorry I wasn't listening. Just got so much stuff crammed inside my brain that I think it'll turn to mush."

Both of them just laid like that for a while, holding onto each other for support that they knew they needed but didn't want to admit that fact out loud. It was Chloe who first broke the silence, voice barely louder than a whisper as she uttered the very words Max dreaded to hear.

"I dreamed about Rachel...and how we found her."

Max's face fell at the mention of the dead girl's name as her mind already flashed images of that day in front of her eyes, painfully reminding her of the anguish Chloe had gone through in that moment.

"I'm so-", she started but got interrupted by a lone finger pressing itself against her lips.

"Don't be sorry", Chloe said, removing the finger to rest her hand against the photographer's freckled cheek, "be better. Promise me you won't ever leave me, Max. Please."

Her heart broke, over and over again and no amount of rewinding would be enough to tend to the shattered pieces that remained as she heard the defeated and terrified voice of her soulmate. She so desperately wanted to give her the promise, tell her that everything would be alright and that they would live happily ever after, but she couldn't. Because she didn't know how all the shit happening in Arcadia Bay lately would affect both her life and the life of her most important person.

"I won't leave you Chloe, you know that."

"Promise me then, right here, right now. Show me that you actually mean-", she started but got effectively cut off by a pair of lips pressing down on her own, the owner putting such an intensity into it that it left the punker more than just slightly surprised.

"I swear to Dog, I hope this isn't the only way to shut you up. Chloe, chill. I won't leave you, I promise. Even if we don't know what happens tomorrow, where we'll end up, I just know that we'll do it together. No matter what."

Max felt like her cheeks would spontaneously combust or melt the skin right off of her face. She was both shocked and somewhat embarrassed that she had kissed Chloe yet again, and this time without a dare. But she didn't regret it, because the fluttery feeling it left in her stomach could never mean anything bad. ' _Pretty sure that somewhere along the way I fell pretty damn hard for my best friend. Girlfriend. Ugh, thoughts hurting my brain._ '

Silence settled over the room once more, the clock on the hipster's phone showing a dimly glowing 4AM on the screen, but this time the silence wasn't uncomfortable. It held an unspoken question, sure, but the pair knew that they would end up talking about it eventually. Maybe during easier times. Chloe's slender, pale arms continued holding Max against her and the smaller woman used the opportunity to snuggle against a barely clothed shoulder, enjoying the warmth that radiated off the young punker. Shortly before Max was actually able to return to dreamland she heard the soft whisper of her dearest that left her lips curling upwards into a small smile.

"You better not rewind and take that kiss back either."

* * *

I am a bit meh about this story. Feel like I could have done more but...guess I'll just write more stories. Hm^^

Not really much to say about this one. Realistic dreams are cool. Realistic nightmares are really scary. Especially the ones you can't wake up from

 **Phrase of the Day**

 _Stay up late and we talk all night in the dark room lit by the TV light  
_

"Those Nights" by Skillet

 **If you liked it, please** **REVIEW**.

No flaming please.


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